1. قامَتْ حُرُوبُ الْهَوَى على سَاقِ

    بَيْنَ قُلُوبٍ وَبَيْنَ أَحْدَاقِ

    Love’s wars have risen in full fury

    between hearts and eyes.

  2. وانْفَسَخَتْ هُدْنَةُ السُّلُوِّ فَمَا

    تُوثَقُ منها عُقُودُ مِيثَاقِ

    And the truce of forgetting has dissolved, so no

    bonds of its covenant can be made fast.

  3. وكانَ صَبْرِي بَيْضاً مُلَحَّمَةً

    نَزَعْتُها مِنْ لِقَاءِ أَشْوَاقِ

    My patience was reinforced helmets,

    which I stripped off upon meeting my longings.

  4. فَلَيْتَ شِعْري وَقَدْ بَكَيْتُ دَماً

    هَلْ ذُبِحَ النَّوْمُ بَيْنَ آماقي

    Would that I knew, now that I have wept blood,

    whether sleep was slaughtered between my eye-corners.

  5. لِيَهْنِكَ النَّصْرُ يا غَرَامُ فَكَمْ

    لِوَاءِ قَلْبٍ عَلَيْكَ خَفَّاقِ

    May victory gladden you, O passion—how many

    a heart’s banner flutters over you!

  6. خُذْ مِنْ حَدِيثِ الْهَوَى مُطَالَعَةً

    سارَ بها البَرْقُ لا ابْنُ بَرَّاقِ

    Take a dispatch from the tale of love,

    carried by lightning, not Ibn Barraq.

  7. يُعْرِبُ عَمَّا طَوَتْهُ أَسْطُرُهَا

    لِسَانُ وَرْقَاءَ بَيْنَ أَوْرَاقِ

    What its lines enfold is made plain by

    a gray dove’s tongue among the leaves.

  8. وما أُدَاجِيكَ في حَدِيثِ صَباً

    أَخْلَقْتُ فيهِ بُرُودَ أَخْلاَقِي

    And I do not dissemble with you in a tale of yearning

    in which I wore out the striped mantles of my character.

  9. أَصْبَحَ شَطْرُ الفُؤادِ في يَدِ مَنْ

    لَسْتُ عَلَيْهِ أَضِنُّ بِالبَاقِي

    Half my heart is now in the hand of one

    to whom I would not begrudge the rest.

  10. أَيْنَ غَزَالُ الْكِنَاسِ مِنْ رَشَإِ

    يَنْطَحُ من فاحمٍ بِأَرْوَاقِ

    How can the gazelle of the thicket compare with a fawn

    that butts with horns of jet-black hair?

  11. وأَيْنَ بَدْرُ السَّمَاءِ من قَمَرٍ

    مَطْلَعُهُ في سَمَاءِ أَطْوَاقِ

    And how can heaven’s full moon compare with a moon

    whose rising-place is in a sky of necklaces?

  12. هَاتِ مُدَاماً كَأَنَّ عاصِرَهَا

    عَرَّضَ فِيها بِوَجْنّةِ السَّاقِي

    Bring aged wine, as though its presser

    had hinted in it at the cupbearer’s cheek.

  13. يُمْسِكُ أَرْمَاقَنَا وَإنْ طَفِقَتْ

    فِي الْكَأْسِ مَمْسُوكَةً بِأَرْمَاقِ

    It sustains our last sparks of life, though it has become

    held in the cup by cords.

  14. نارٌ وَلَيْسَ الخَلِيلُ شارِبَهَا

    فَكَيْفَ ما أَتْلَفَتْ بِإحْرَاقِ

    It is fire, yet al-Khalil is not its drinker;

    how, then, has it not wrought destruction by burning?

  15. يَحْمِلُ أَنْفَاسَ رَوْضَةٍ سَرَقَتْ

    رِقَّتَها مِنْ نُفُوسِ عُشَّاقِ

    It carries the breaths of a garden that stole

    its delicacy from lovers’ souls.

  16. غَنَّتْ على دَوْحِهَا مُغَرِّدَةٌ

    تُطْرِبُ هارُونَنَا بِإسْحَاقِ

    A songbird sang upon its spreading trees,

    delighting our Harun with Ishaq.

  17. رَاسَلْتُهَا مادِحاً أَبَا حَسَنٍ

    فَغَبَّرَتْ في طَرِيق سَبَّاقِ

    I answered her in song, praising Abu Hasan,

    so she stirred up dust on a front-runner’s course.

  18. عليٌّ المُعْتَلِي بِسُؤْدُدِهِ

    في شاهِِق الذِّرْوَتَيْنِ مِزْلاَقِ

    Ali, who ascends through his nobility

    a lofty, slippery height with twin summits.

  19. فَرْعُ فَخَارٍ أُصُولُ نَبْعَتِهِ

    كانَتْ فُرُوعاً لِخَيْرِ أَعْرَاقِ

    A branch of glory, the roots of whose bowwood tree

    were branches of the finest ancestral stock.

  20. يَطَّرِدُ المَجْدُ فِي مَنَاسِبِهِ

    كَجَوْهَرٍ في فِرِنْدِ ذَلاَّقِ

    Glory runs unbroken through his lineages,

    like luster in the watered pattern of a keen blade.

  21. غَرْسُ الأَمانِيِّ في أَنَامِلِهِ

    يُثْمِرُ بِالْجُودِ قَبْلَ إيرَاقَ

    The planting of hopes in his fingertips

    bears fruit through generosity before leafing.

  22. لا تَدَّعي رِقِّيَ الخُطًوبُ فَقَدْ

    أّخّذْتُ مِنْهُ كِتابَ إعْتَاقِ

    Let misfortunes not claim me as a slave, for

    I have received from him a deed of emancipation.

  23. صنائِعٌ أَصْبَحَتْ سَبَائِكُهَا

    مناطِقاً في خُصُورِ أَعْنَاقِ

    Favors whose ingots have become

    girdles about the waists of necks.

  24. كانَتْ سُرُوبُ العُلاَ مُفَرَّقَةً

    فَلَفَّها لَيْلَةً بِسَوَّاقِ

    The herds of glory were scattered;

    so he gathered them one night with a drover.

  25. هَلِ الْقَوَافِي لَوْلاَ فَضَائِلُهُ

    غَيْرُ مِدَادٍ وَغَيْرُ أَوْرَاقِ

    But for his virtues, are rhymes

    anything other than ink and sheets of paper?

  26. يُثْنَى عَلَى مَدْحِهِ وكم مِدَحٍ

    ما بَيْنَ كَشْطٍ وَبَيْنَ إلْحاقِ

    Praise of him is itself praised; how many panegyrics

    lie between erasure and insertion!

  27. سِهَامُ آرائِهِ مُسَدَّدَةُ

    جَوْدَةَ نَزْعٍ وَحُسْنَ إغْرَاقِ

    The arrows of his judgments are aimed true,

    with a masterly pull and a fine full draw.

  28. يَنْفُثُ صِلُّ اليَرَاعِ في يَدِهِ

    سُمًّا غَدَا فيه كُلُّ دِرْيَاقِ

    The asp of the reed pen in his hand spits

    venom in which every antidote is found.

  29. يُرَوِّضُ الطِّرْسَ من خَوَاطِرِهِ

    بِمُسْتَهلِّ الشُّؤُونِ غَيْدَاقِ

    He turns the page into a garden with his thoughts,

    with a copious outpouring from the tear ducts.

  30. يَلْعَبُ بِالْمُرْهَفِ الدَّلِِيقِ فَهَلْ

    سَمِعْتَ عَنْ لاعِبٍ بِمِخْرَاقِ

    He plays with the keen, readily drawn blade—have you

    heard of a player with a twisted-cloth whip?

  31. وَيَنْثَنِي الرُّمْحُ ذُو الكُعُوبِ بِهِ

    يَهْتَزُّ مِنْ خِيفَةٍ وَإشْفَاقِ

    And the jointed spear bends in his grasp,

    trembling with fear and apprehension.

  32. والعَامُ قَدْ عَامَ مِنْهُ في كَرَمٍ

    أَغْرَقْتَهُ فِيهِ أَيَّ إغْرَاقِ

    And the year has swum in bounty flowing from him;

    you have drowned it there beyond all measure.

  33. لا زالَ في عِزَّةٍّ مُجَدَّدَةٍ

    ما قامَ ساقٌ فَنَاحَ في سَاقِ

    May he ever remain in renewed glory,

    as long as a male dove stands and coos upon a tree trunk.